Amidst the growing tension in Kashmir, army chief General BipinRawat, on Sunday, stated that innovative measures are being implemented to engage the army in a dirty war in the valley, the day when union home minister Rajnath Singh declared that BJP lead NDA government has chalked out a plan to ensure that a “permanent solution” of the Kashmir issue is achieved without compromising the integrity of the Indian territory.
Speaking on the current condition of Kashmir while being interview by a news agency, Gen Rawat observed that the situation resembles that of a “proxy war”. Gen Rawat said, “It (proxy war) is played in a dirty way. The rules of engagements are there when the adversary comes face-to-face and fights with you. It is a dirty war…. That is where innovation comes in. You fight a dirty war with innovations.”
Justifying his decision of awarding Major LeetulGogaoi with the army chief’s commendation medal when a Court of Inquiry was finalising its probe on the issue of Major Gogoi’s act of using a Kashmiri as a human shield against protestors who were pelting stones at the army personnel last month, Gen Rawat said that it was done to uplift the morale of the men in uniform who are deployed in the valley to eradicate provocative violence.
After the release of a video of the entire incident, Major Gogoi was highly criticised by several human right activist and Kashmiri groups. A handful of ex-army officers too condemned this incident. The man who was tied to the jeep and used as a human shield claimed that he was returning after casting his vote and was not at all involved in any kind of violent activity.
Talking about the situation that forced Major Gogoi to take refuge of a human shield, Gen Rawat said,” People are throwing stones at us, people are throwing petrol bombs at us. If my men ask me what do we do, should I say, just wait and die? I will come with a nice coffin with a national flag and I will send your bodies home with honour. Is it what I am supposed to tell them as chief? I have to maintain the morale of my troops who are operating there.”
Throwing caution to the winds, the army chief said “Adversaries must be afraid of you and at the same time your people must be afraid of you. We are a friendly army, but when we are called to restore law and order, people have to be afraid of us.”
Meanwhile in Delhi, union home minister Rajnath Singh, after adimitting that the Kashmir is in a state of turmoil, affirmed that the BJP led NDA government has chalked out a plan to for “permanent solution” of the Kashmir issue without compromising the countries territorial integrity.
Although Singh did not disclose the any detail about the type of the “solution”, he said, “We have come up with a permanent solution to solve Kashmir. The initiative has begun. We are moving forward. We have come up with a permanent solution to solve Kashmir. The initiative has begun. We are moving forward.”
“It is too early to discuss it (solution) in public. I don’t want to discuss it with the media,” added the minister.
Following the narrative set by the party BJP president Amit Shah has eliminated every scope of bilateral dialogues with the separatist leaders of Kashmir at this point.
Shah said, “We have said that we will start dialogue once stone- pelting stops. As long as there is stone-pelting, there cannot be dialogue. We cannot give them flower if they pelt stones. They (separatists) will have to understand it.”
